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Mercury Transit Monday 2016 May 9

published by newrasckc on Wed, 04/20/2016 - 12:48

Transit of Mercury Monday 2016 May 09 UT Times Start 11:12 Mid 14:57 End 18:42 subtract 4 hours for EDT Start 07:12 Mid 10:57 End 14:42
Big picture 7am to 2:42pm The entire transit will be visible in Eastern Ontario. Observing the Transit Since Mercury is only 1/158 of the Sun's apparent diameter, a telescope with a magnification of 50x or more is recommended to watch this event. The telescope must be suitably equipped with adequate filtration to ensure safe solar viewing. The visual and photographic requirements for the transit are identical to those for observing sunspots and partial solar eclipses. Amateurs can make a useful contribution by timing the four contacts at ingress and egress. Observing techniques and timing equipment are similar to those used for lunar occultations. Since poor seeing often increases the uncertainty in contact timings, an estimate of the possible error associated with each time should be included. Transit timings and geographic coordinates of the observing site (measured from GPS) should be sent to Dr. John E. Westfall (johnwestfall@comcast.net), A.L.P.O. Mercury/Venus Transit Section, 5061 Carbondale Way, Antioch, CA 94531. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Mercury Transits of Mercury can happen in May or November with May transits being about half as frequent as November transits.[2] They currently occur within a few days either side of May 8 and November 10.[3] During May transits Mercury has an angular diameter of 12" The next one is 2019 Nov 11